UTILIZATION

GENERAL APPEARANCE

Character: The Briard, not living in a outdoor kennel, is a perfect and faithful loyal family dog. The incessant contact to his family is the most important thing for the Briard. He wants to take part in everything. Therefore, he will always choose a place, where he can be in the middle of events. He has a well balanced personality and is neither aggressive nor timid, but robust and courageous. Towards strangers the Briard acts reserved, but is not unfriendly; he just wants to be the one taking the first step.
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Background:

Likely to all herding dogs, the Briard’s origin goes far back. Some specimen shall have already been bred at the royal court of Charles the Great (Karl dem Grossen, 768 – 814). There is evidence that in the church of Montdidier, destroyed in 1918, there was a sign from the year 1371 deposited, which shows a fighting scene where a dog looking like a Briard got the upper hand over the murderer of his master. Concretely described the Briard was the first time by Abbot Rozier. In the year 1863 for the first time a Briard appeared at a dog show in Paris, in 1897 a first standard was constructed by the Club of Herding Dogs. Time by time the specimen with the woolly coat disappeared and the goat hair got the upper hand. 1909 some Briard friends founded the “Club des Amis du Briard” and the standard was reworked.

From the breed standard

SIZE: 0,62 m to 0,68 m for males 0,56 m to 0,64 m for females. The length of the body must be more important than the height at shoulders. The general appearance of the Briard is rangy.

HEAD: Strong, long, pronounced stop midway between the top of the head and the tip of the nose, furnished with hair forming beard, moustache and eyebrows slightly hiding the eyes.

Penalisation: Short head, too long, no balance between muzzle and skull. Disproportion between head and body. Hairy head to the extent of hiding the shape; beard, moustache and eyebrows insufficient, stop too pronounced or non-existent.

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Eyes: Horizontal, well open, quite large, not slanting, of dark colour, intelligent and calm expression. A grey eye in a grey dog is not to be penalized.

Penalisation: Eye too small, almond shaped or of a light colour.

Disqualification: Eyes dissimilar, haggard, too light in colour.

Ears: Set high, preferably cropped and carried erect; not flat against the head and rather short if uncropped. At equal quality, preference shall be given to the dog whose erect carried ears have been cropped. The length of the uncropped ear must be equal or slightly less than half of the length of the head, always flat and covered with long hair. In most of the European countries cropping has already been forbidden, there are only few countries which still allow it. Since # it is strictly forbidden to import any cropped dog, even if in the country of birth cropping is still allowed

Penalisation:

Not dry enough, slightly curly, no undercoat. In case of requiring acceptance for breeding: postponement of 6 months,

Too short,

Fine hair.

Disqualification: Coat (hair) shorter than 7 cm. Coat soft or woolly.

COLOUR: All uniform colours are admitted apart from those mentioned below. The dark shades are to be recommended. Not to be confused the bi-colour with a slightly lighter shade on the extrimeties which is nothing more than a beginning of depigmentation. This shade, slightly lighter, must remain in the same range of the fawn colours (dark fawn or light fawn, dark black on lightened black, dark grey on lighter grey, etc). The fawn must be warm and uniform, neither light or washed out.

Disqualification:

Note: For the bi-colour, look at the colour of the skin which will be bluish under the dark parts and pinkish under the light parts.

DEWCLAWS: DOUBLE dewclaws on the back legs (see explanatory sketch plate A). THE DOGS, EVEN OF VERY GOOD TYPE, WHO ONLY HAVE ONE DEWCLAW, WILL NOT BE GIVEN AN AWARD. Acceptance for breeding will be refused.
The double dewclaws must be made up of two bony parts with nails, placed as near the ground as possible, assuring a better setting of the foot.

Penalisation:

Disqualification:

Lack of two bony sections in a double dewclaw, even if the nails are there,

Lack of one bony section in each double dewclaw, even if the nails are there, (see sketch explaining plate C)

ACCEPTANCE FOR BREEDING: ALL MOTIVES OF DISQUALIFICATION, ALL QUALIFYING LESS THAN GOOD, WILL MEAN NO ACCEPTANCE OF THE SUBJECTS FOR BREEDING.

FAULTS: Any departure from the foregoing points should be considered a fault and the seriousness with which the fault should be regarded should be in exact proportion to ist degree.
Male animals should have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum.